Notice the kitchen floor. I did not use the vinyl strips in here but rather the wood tiles. I then stained them using the same brown as I did for all of the interior trim. I think they came out looking pretty good. Wooden tiles are very versatile and can be painted or stained to match many different styles of decor. After the stain dried, I varnished them with clear gloss varnish. It gives them a nice sheen. If you want them to be glossier, then apply up to three coats of varnish, allowing for each coat to dry in between applications. I only used one coat because I still want this dollhouse to have the rustic appearance of a medieval house.
Now, back edge trims. I trimmed all of my back edges. On a completely stucco dollhouse, applying trim to the back edges of your walls and floors is not necessary since the dollhouse is rough all over. You don't really need smooth back edges for this type of finish. Back edge trim is not only good for nice smooth edges but it also helps in other ways. For one, it hides any curvature of the back walls and floors. Remember, no matter how straight you build your die-cut dollhouse, the wood sheets are very thin and tend to slope down (warp) in the middle of the room, especially the floors. This is especially true of there is a partition in the room, like a staircase. The staircase will left the floor straight but the room next to the staircase, will have slight curve of the floor when you look at the back edge. Applying trim will straighten that out and make it unnoticeable. It also gives the back edges a little bit more support. If you leave a slight overhang of your back edge floor trim on the top edge, you can keep miniature furniture from sliding out of your dollhouse as well. So always use back edge trim using basswood strips, whenever possible, regardless of finish.
Now the second floor staircase stairwell has a little bit of floor exposure to it. I had to fit my big old hand in there to cover it with the vinyl strips. Vinyl strip flooring is very forgiving. Always place the edges you cut towards the walls so that the floor joints are completely straight when they butt together. As you can see, you can use the same strips as baseboards for a more uniform look.
I used brown trim all around these pesky stair rail walls.
